


you know i talk too much

by herinterface



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Halloween, M/M, Pining, Spin the Bottle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 18:12:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16372574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herinterface/pseuds/herinterface
Summary: Halloween is a stupid holiday for children that only weirdos celebrate after the age of twelve. Zuko will have no part of it.Until he does.





	you know i talk too much

**Author's Note:**

> _You know I_   
>  [talk too much](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWxM_zLJGsU)   
>  _Honey, come put your lips on mine and shut me up_
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> be sure to check out my friend srishti's [beautiful art](http://drawthelinestoallconstellations.tumblr.com/post/179301256401/yall-sam-zukkas-really-out-there-drainin-me-of) that complements this fic!

This is stupid. This is very, very stupid.  
  
Zuko didn’t even want to do anything for Halloween in the first place. It’s a stupid holiday for children that only weirdos celebrate after the age of 12, Sokka included. And he told him this, very blatantly.  
  
But Sokka, annoying, obnoxiously peppy Sokka, took it all in stride, laughed heartily, and said his Halloween parties were always the best. Costumes optional, he promised, _but where’s the fun in that?_ _Nudge, nudge_. Literally. He nudged Zuko. And said “Nudge, nudge.”  
  
As dumb as Sokka is, Zuko has him beat on the stupidity scale by having the audacity to have a big fat crush on him anyway.  
  
It was all fine and good. Zuko was just going to go to this party, be with their small group of friends, get drunk, and have a jolly good time. He wouldn’t indulge Sokka’s stupid request to show up in a costume.  
  
He wouldn’t.  
  
He does.  
  
He’s in Walmart for completely unrelated reasons, and there’s Halloween shit absolutely everywhere in sight. He couldn’t throw Sokka five feet without having him hit a cheap Spongebob costume for children or fucking spider-themed napkins. And right next to the thing he actually came for, there’s a kit. In it comes two sets of fake vampire fangs, and a tube of glue for application. And he... thinks.  
  
He remembers something, a throwaway comment in an otherwise menial conversation that no normal person would remember or care about. He and Sokka sitting around playing Monopoly in their living room, watching a shitty vampire romance movie (they had challenged each other to a race to see who could find the worst-looking movie on Netflix the fastest, and naturally Sokka had won). Neither of them even paying attention to the damn thing, or even remotely knowing the plot, only glancing up occasionally to find that there’s a shirtless man onscreen or a dramatic argument happening.  
  
And Sokka says, “I find monster men kinda hot.”  
  
Zuko pauses from counting how much money he has to give Sokka because he landed on one of his damn properties. “Excuse me?”  
  
“You know, like, the idea of sexy monster dudes. Vampires and werewolves and shit. Or, like, a really buff merman. Kinda gets me going,” he says, a big amused smile on his face confusing Zuko as to whether or not he’s serious. You can never really tell with Sokka.  
  
“Weird, dude,” Zuko comments briefly, because. Weird. And also, he’s trying to hide that he’s kind of flustered by Sokka being, like, two feet away from him and talking about being _turned on_.  
  
“Maybe,” Sokka muses. And the conversation ends there. Nothing particularly memorable. He probably wasn’t even serious, for fuck’s sake.  
  
But as Zuko stares at the vampire fangs, this moment rings in his head, and his stupid body is moving against his will to grab the teeth and throw them in his basket. And once they’re in there, he says _fuck it_ , and goes all out. Gets a long, black cloak, a tube of fake blood that claims to taste like candy. He pretends it was completely his decision, uninfluenced by any third parties.  
  
He doesn’t realize until he’s in his car with his bag of sin thrown in the passenger seat that he completely forgot to buy underwear, the only reason he had fucking come to Walmart in the first place. He blames Sokka.  
  
  
Zuko’s train of thought continues to look like _this is stupid this is stupid_ from the moment he wakes up on October 31st to eating breakfast with Sokka to helping Sokka finish decorating the apartment to looking at himself in the mirror questioning his life choices to gluing on the vampire teeth to applying fake blood in and around his mouth (distantly noting that it does, in fact, vaguely taste like candy) to getting some of Sokka’s black eyeshadow and applying it under his eyes for an extra dramatic effect because he’s a damn _artist_ to stepping out and waiting for Sokka to see his very stupid costume idea. He forces himself to see it through, fights the instinct to run back in, wash everything off, and then maybe move to Colorado. He stands very still in the middle of the living room and waits for Sokka to turn around from where he’s hanging up orange fairy lights.  
  
“Hey, Zuko, can you get me—" and he turns his head towards him to ask for something, and then promptly flails backwards and falls off the ladder on which he was standing, hitting the floor with a _thunk_.  
  
“Holy shit,” Zuko breathes, running over to kneel next to him. “Sokka, are you okay?”  
  
Sokka’s face scrunches up in pain as he reaches one hand to cradle the back of his head, checking for a bump. “Ow.” When his head stops throbbing horribly, he opens his eyes and looks at Zuko again. “What are... Are you a vampire?”  
  
“What?” Zuko asks. He looks down at his thrown-together $10 Walmart costume. “Uh, yeah. Why?”  
  
“No reason,” Sokka says sharply. “You look good.”  
  
“Thanks,” Zuko says, confused as to why he’s focusing on this when he probably has a concussion. Maybe it’s the concussion. “Here, get up. I’ll get some ice.” He grabs Sokka’s hand and helps him get up, leads him to the couch, then gets one of the many icepacks they have in the freezer in preparation for Sokka’s frequent soccer injuries. He comes back to the couch and sits next to him, icepack in hand.  
  
“I’m fine,” Sokka says sheepishly, grabbing for the pack and pressing it gingerly to his head. “That was dumb of me. Hope I don’t have a concussion.”  
  
“It would be a real downer on the party,” Zuko says blankly, only cracking a smile when Sokka bursts out laughing, then lightly chastising him when it makes him wince in pain.  
  
  
By the time their friends start arriving, Sokka’s pain is all but gone and he’s clad in his very own thrown-together $5 Target costume. He’s wearing cat ears and a tail taped to his lower back that keeps falling off. He has Zuko draw a dot on his nose and whiskers on his cheeks. “I’m a sexy cat,” he says. “Meow.” Zuko rolls his eyes and turns away to keep from revealing his blush.

Aang gets there first, donning full cowboy gear: a hat, boots, a lasso draped over his shoulder, and a fake mustache for some reason. “Howdy,” he says. “Uninspired,” Sokka replies. “...Greetings?” Aang tries. “Nice. Subverting expectations. Adds depth to the character,” Sokka compliments. Aang smiles proudly.

Katara and Suki arrive together, in costumes Zuko can’t immediately recognize. Katara is dressed in pink, complete with a pink wig and a golden crown, while Suki dons a normal-looking tank top and jeans combination, though with a black wig and holding a weirdly shaped guitar for some reason. Sokka immediately recognizes it, of course, so it must be some nerd shit Zuko doesn’t know about. “Cuuute!” he gushes. Zuko will ask them later.

Toph arrives last, as usual, fashionably late in her very sophisticated costume that no one gets but her. She’s wearing a long brown robe and what appears to be a hollowed-out watermelon with holes cut out for the eyes and mouth over her head. “I am the Melon Lord,” she says when anyone asks. Usual Toph behavior.   
  
Sokka puts on some music, which Katara promptly changes to some better music that everyone will enjoy, and the party (drinking) begins.   
  
A few hours in, Sokka is very drunk as everyone else remains significantly more sober, because he kept insisting everyone take shots and then not noticing that no one else was taking them but him. Toph took two, but she’s a champ and her liver is built like a brick house. She’s acting exactly the same as she does sober.   
  
Since the party began, Zuko’s been mostly sitting in the same spot on the couch, trading conversation with whoever happens to sit next to him. He’s sitting with Suki, who’s talking animatedly about her philosophy class, when Sokka yells, “Hey!” to get everyone’s attention.   
  
Everyone stops what they’re doing to look at him. He brandishes the mostly-empty bottle of vodka in his hand, chugs the rest of it in one go, and exclaims, “Spin the bottle!” as he runs to the center of the room, plops down on the floor and waves everyone over. They all exchange the Sokka Look before joining him on the floor, sitting in a circle. Zuko sits in between Katara and Suki, and directly across from Sokka, who sits between Aang and Toph.   
  
Suki gladly volunteers to go first, because she loves kissing people. She grabs the bottle, sets it down on its side in the middle of the circle, and spins. It comes to a stop pointing at Katara, and Suki gives her a wink and a smile before crawling over to kiss her firmly. Zuko leans back, politely looks away. It feels weird when they’re actually dating. Aang helpfully narrates what happens to Toph, who looks pleased.   
  
After about five seconds, Sokka says, “Alright, alright, enough corrupting my sister. Katara, you’re up!”   
  
Katara clears her throat as Suki slinks back to her spot looking satisfied. She spins the bottle, which stops to point at Aang. She looks over at her girlfriend, who predictably nods her head in approval, before giving Aang a chaste kiss on the lips. Aang smiles good-naturedly before spinning himself. It lands on Sokka, whom he kisses quickly on the corner of the mouth before nervously settling back down.   
  
Then it’s Sokka’s turn. Zuko quickly runs through imagining every possible scenario of Sokka kissing whomever his spin lands on and decides it will be incredibly awkward and slightly painful to watch no matter who it is, so he just won’t look. Sokka is clearly very inebriated and very sloppy, and this could quickly turn into an uncomfortable situation of everyone wondering what to do as Sokka shoves his tongue into the mouth of whichever poor soul the bottle points to. Lost in his train of thought, Zuko snaps back to attention when Aang says his name.   
  
“Hmm?” he responds.   
  
Aang points down at the floor, at the approximate location where the bottle is. He slowly looks down to find the bottle pointing straight at him, perfectly centered like a compass finding its north. He raises his eyes to find Sokka watching him with a smirk. “C’mere, vampire boy,” he says, beckoning Zuko with his finger. “Don’t be afraid to bite. It’s very in-character.”   
  
Of course, Sokka has to be a flirty asshole and make this even harder for Zuko. His heart’s already pounding in his chest, has been since Sokka’s turn started, and he feels sick. He momentarily curses karma for this twisted trick of fate, mentally promises that the next time they ask him to donate a dollar to starving children at McDonald’s he’ll say yes.   
  
He’ll just do it, get it over with, and at the end of the night they’ll go back to separate beds, and in the morning they’ll go right back to being simple friends who share cereal and laugh over board games and confide in each other about family trauma, and a few years down the line Sokka will meet a perfect person and Zuko will be the best man at his wedding and hold back tears at the vows for more reasons than one and it will all be fine. Jeez, Zuko. Melodramatic much?   
  
Sokka, still smirking, reaches over to shove the bottle out of the way and crawls over into Zuko’s space, leans in close enough so Zuko can smell the alcohol on his breath. It shouldn’t be so hot.   
  
“Okay,” he drawls. “Gonna kiss you now.”   
  
“Hurry up, then,” Zuko says, impatiently, and then Sokka’s kissing him. His lips are warm, and the taste is even stronger than the smell, enough that Zuko is pretty sure he could get secondhand drunk off of this. He tries to ground himself, to stay focused on anything, but he feels floaty and lightheaded and oh, that’s Sokka’s tongue. In his mouth. Okay.   
  
As much as the bitter side of him wants to say he’d rather have never kissed Sokka than to have his only kiss with him be a meaningless drunken one, he’s very glad he’s having this experience. Really... A+ all around.   
  
And then, some animalistic part of his brain, most likely the same part that forced him to impulse buy this stupid vampire costume, reminds him that Sokka said he could bite him. No, he basically invited him to do so. Please bite me, said Sokka, and Zuko is sure if the court were to review his previous statements you would find he has not perjured himself. So Zuko firmly bites Sokka’s bottom lip, hears Sokka’s quiet gasp and feels him open his mouth even more to let Zuko in, and...   
  
Someone clears their throat. Loudly. “Are they done yet?” Toph asks. They flinch apart and just look at each other for a moment. Sokka’s lips look ravaged, and Zuko can’t help but think _I did that_. They’re both panting a bit. Zuko is still stuck on his heady scent, feels faint.   
  
“Well, now they are,” Suki says, disappointedly, and Zuko shamefully realizes they were giving all their closest friends, and Sokka’s sister, a show. He clears his throat, embarrassed, and Sokka crawls back to his spot meekly, which is a new look on him. Zuko almost feels proud that he was able to make him look like that. No, he does. He’s proud.   
  
Sokka meets his eyes and smiles softly, and a moment of clarity falls over Zuko. He smiles back.   
  
“Ugh,” Katara says, watching their interaction. “Finally. Can we go home now?”

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on [tumblr](https://www.zukkas.tumblr.com)!


End file.
